Anonymous Takes On a Mexican Drug Cartel

[DKT27]

Group called Anonymous demands release of one of their own who was kidnapped

Video contains language that may be offensive to some viewers. Note: NOT in English.

An international group of online hackers is warning a Mexican drug cartel to release one of its members, kidnapped from a street protest, or it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates, from corrupt police to taxi drivers, as well as reveal the syndicates' businesses.

The vow is a bizarre cyber twist to Mexico's ongoing drug war, as a group that has no guns is squaring off against the Zetas, a cartel blamed for thousands of deaths as well as introducing beheadings and other frightening brutality.

"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," says a masked man in a video posted online on behalf of the group, Anonymous.

"We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession," says the man, who is wearing a suit and tie.

"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located," says the man, who underlines the group's international ties by speaking Spanish with the accent of a Spaniard while using Mexican slang.

He also implies that the group will expose mainstream journalists who are somehow in cahoots with the Zetas by writing negative articles about the military, the country's biggest fist in the drug war.

"We demand his release," says the Anonymous spokesman, who is wearing a mask like the one worn by the shadowy revolutionary character in the movie V for Vendetta, which came out in 2006. "If anything happens to him, you sons of (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5."

The person reportedly kidnapped is not named, and the video does not share information about the kidnapping other than that it occurred in the Mexican state of Veracruz during a street protest.

Anonymous draws its roots from an online forum dedicated to bringing sensitive government documents and other material to light.

If Anonymous can make good on its threats to publish names, it will "most certainly" lead to more deaths and could leave bloggers and others open to reprisal attacks by the cartel, contends Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence company.

"In this viral world on the Internet, it shows how much damage could be done with just one statement on the Web," said Fred Burton of Stratfor, which published a report Friday that probes the implications of the cartel drawing the activists' ire.

Mike Vigil, the retired head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the Zetas must take Anonymous seriously.

"It is a gutsy move," Vigil said. "By publishing the names, they identify them to rivals, and trust me, they will go after them."

Transcript of Anonymous video

"Anonymous from Veracruz, Mexico, and the world, we want you to know that a member has been kidnapped when he was doing Paperstorm in our city.

We demand his release. We want the army and the navy to know that we are fed up of the criminal group Zetas, who have concentrated on kidnapping, stealing and blackmailing in different ways. One of them is charging every honest and hardworking citizen of Veracruz who busts their rears working day after day to feed their families.

We are fed up of journalists and newspapers of Xalapa, Córdoba and Orizaba because they are constantly crapping on honest authorities like the army and the navy.

We are fed up with taxi drivers, commanders and "police-zetas" officers of Xalapa, Córdoba, Orizaba, Nogales, Río Blanco and Camerinos... who are chickens and have made themselves the most loyal servants of these (expletive).

For the time being, we won´t post photos or the names ... of the taxi drivers, the journalists or the newspapers nor of the police officers, but if needed, we will publish them including their addresses, to see if by doing so the government will arrest them.

We can´t defend ourselves with a weapon, but if we can do this with their cars, houses, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession ... It won´t be difficult. We all know who they are and where they are.

(Images with sound of explosions)

You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him. And if anything happens to him, you (expletive) will always remember this upcoming November 5th .

Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous. We are a legion. We don't forgive. We don't forget. Expect us."

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[Ambrocious]

So...it really looks like they are going to carry through with their plans for the 5th of November then...

[nuthut]

WOW!! To go from a group that the world hates, the the defenders of the unjust.

First taking down the pedos to taking on the Mexican drug cartel. Go on with your bad selves!!!!

[T0nyB]

Why do I have a feeling that the drug cartel isn't easily going to give in and there are going to be some anonymous members dead? I mean, they have millions right? What's there to invest money into hackers to counterattack?

[Nemesis]

Why do I have a feeling that the drug cartel isn't easily going to give in and there are going to be some anonymous members dead? I mean, they have millions right? What's there to invest money into hackers to counterattack?

true, but i think it would be hard to figure out their real identity, each member is probably behind 5 proxy's and other means, who knows for sure. they could probably disrupt their way of communicating though. Has a cartel ever faced these things before?? my money is on not. will they know any hackers? doubtful. the cartels operation is not based on any computer, most high tech things they use are the guns they hold and the cellphones in their pockets. if they used computers for their "deeds" the US feds would have found and shut down their operations by now anyway.

Besides, any real hacker would probably know to stay far away from anonymous. any hacking to them would more than likely be traced and he/she would get screwed in the process.

[DKT27]

Barrett Brown Says Anonymous Attack on Drug Cartels Still Alive

The sometime public face of Anonymous says that the group voted on OpCartel, and the decision was to proceed.

A planned cyber attack on one of the most vicious drug cartels in Mexico by members of the hacker collective known as Anonymous is going ahead as planned, a spokesman for the group said today through a video posted to YouTube.

After reports that a member of the group behind the operation, called OpCartel, had announced that it was scrapped, a vote was held by everyone involved, and it was decided to proceed with the action, according to Barrett Brown, who is often the public face of Anonymous.

Brown maintained that OpCartel members were proceeding carefully, not only to protect themselves, but to insure that they identify the right people when they make their public disclosures. "It's a very careful process," he contended.

For any Anonymous members concerned that the drug cartel, known as Los Zetas, will hunt down and kill them, "this isn't the movement for them," Brown warned in this YouTube video.

OpCartel has given Los Zetas until Saturday to release an Anonymous member allegedly kidnapped by the cartel in the Mexican state of Veracruz earlier this month. If that doesn't happen, the group says it will post to the Internet the names and addresses of people associated with the cartel. The kidnap happened while the Anonymous member was handing out flyers in something Anonymous calls Operation Paperstorm. Here is a video posted to YouTube purporting to explain Operation Paperstorm:

Background

On Sunday, a Mexican newspaper, Milenio, reported that two Anonymous members told it the operation was canceled. The cancellation came shortly after it was reported that Los Zetas had been hiring computer experts to hunt down the hackers.

Because Anonymous is so loosely knit, it's often the case that something is done in its name and then immediately renounced by other members of the organization. For example, the website of the former attorney general of the Mexican state of Tabasco, Gustavo Rosario Torres, has been vandalized twice. Scrawled on the site was the message “Gustavo Rosario Es Zeta" signed "Anonymous Mexico." On both occasions, Anonymous Mexico has denied having anything to do with defacing the site.

Given the amount of disorder that's surrounded OpCartel so far, there'll probably be a few more twists to this tale as the Saturday deadline approaches.

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[Nemesis]

stay tuned..... i know i am.

[bashar]

it's only one day for the promised day , Facebook . i like to see it teared down for a min :D

[Kojootti]

I bet mr.Brown has several green lights on him+his family already,for going public..

edit: tho I suppose that's not his REAL name.. but showing his face..

[DKT27]

it's only one day for the promised day , Facebook . i like to see it teared down for a min :D

I've said it a 100 times and will say it again, That's FAKE. Sure, after so many rumors, some kiddies will attack them, but it's not going to happen.

Now back to the topic, we all will like anonymous teaching a lesson to the cartels. But I doubt Anons are going to be the one winning here.

[DKT27]

Kidnapped Member Gets Released, Anonymous Calls Off Cartel Outing

Anonymous IberoAmerica, the Latin American collective within the Anonymous hacktivist group, has called off its operation to expose members of the Zetas narcotics cartel after announcing that a kidnapped Anonymous member was released. The released hostage also reportedly delivered a message: that the Zetas would kill ten people for every name of a Zeta associate released by Anonymous.

Anonymous members launched an effort called OpCartel last week after claiming a member had been kidnapped during a "Operation Paperstorm" protest in Veracruz. The group threatened to "dox" members of the cartel, releasing names and addresses of taxi drivers, journalists, and members of law enforcement associated with the group. To collect information to aid in their effort, the group posted a "plug-in" Web application to allow would-be informants to protect their identities while providing names and other information.

Over the past few days, however, there has been growing dissention within the group about going forward with the effort; the Zetas had responded with online efforts of their own, sending death threats through Twitter and other channels, including a claim that they had tracked down the IP address of the user of one Anonymous Twitter account. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analyst Ben West, the Zetas have their own computer security resources, and could conceivably have made efforts to identify Anonymous members as retribution.

"Since we have seen evidence of cartels employing their own computer scientists to engage in cybercrime," he said in a video report, "it is logical to conclude that the cartels likely have individuals working to track anti-cartel bloggers and hackers. Those individuals involved thus face the risk of abduction, injury and death—judging by how Los Zetas have dealt with threats in the past."

After briefly cancelling the effort on November 2, the Anonymous group apparently voted to move forward with the plan according to a

, who has acted as the public face of Anonymous in the past. But just a day later, the operation was called off again, apparently because Anonymous had met its original goal.

"On this day, our anonymous friend retained by the Zetas cartel has been released," the group said in a statement on its website. "We can say that while bruised, he is alive and well. He has sent us a message that if Anonymous reveals a name related to the cartel, the family of the kidnapped anonymous will suffer, and for each cartel member revealed, ten people will be put to death. The Anonymous collective has decided by consensus not to disclose the information that we have for now, as we understand that we can not ignore threats involving innocent civilians that have nothing to do with our actions."

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